The Most Pathetic Headline to Come Out of the Terrorist Attack on French Train

No doubt you know all about the attempted terrorist attack on the Paris to Amsterdam train, which was foiled by three Americans, friends since middle school, two of whom were off-duty servicemen. We wrote about it here and here. Americans everywhere have justly taken pride in the young servicemen, who were on vacation, unarmed and in civilian clothes, but nevertheless, when others fled, charged the terrorist armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and a box cutter and disabled him.

But some apparently have a different perspective. I hereby nominate this headline in the relentlessly left-wing Minneapolis Star-Tribune as the most pathetic response to the young Americans’ heroic deed:

What a classic! It begins with a bow to “authorities,” unspecified but nevertheless deserving of reverence if you are a liberal. Next: “European train passengers” get the credit. If you didn’t know better, you would understand that the heroes were Europeans. And the Strib wouldn’t want you to know that they were not just Americans, but American servicemen.

The “averted” an “attack” is true, but it doesn’t convey the reality of a couple of unarmed men not only putting their bodies in front of a Kalashnikov rifle, but disarming, capturing and beating into unconsciousness a “heavily armed man,” probably saving dozens of lives.

What the heavily armed man was doing on a French train remains a mystery, as far as the Strib’s headline writers are concerned. No mention of the fact that he is a Muslim whose name was known to French anti-terror police, reportedly because of his known or suspected travel to Syria. No hint that this was an attempted terrorist attack, which may or may not have been directed or coordinated by ISIS and its European agents. He was just another of those “heavily armed men” who crop up from time to time in the news.

If there are strong contenders, I haven’t seen them. This must be the most clueless (if not deliberately misleading) headline yet about the terrorist attack on the Paris to Amsterdam train.